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Published: February 24th 2006
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Southern Patagonia may well have been the perfect place for us… coupled with the beautiful scenery of endless lakes, tiny islands and snow-capped mountains we really were in penguin heaven. We couldn’t turn a corner without catching sight of more penguin paraphernalia - they even used giant cuddly penguins as mannequins in shop windows! But alas, we had to participate in some non-animal related things too (honestly we’re not hiding out in London zoo!)
Patagonia is trekkers' heaven so we thought we'd better give it a go too, our first taste was in the Tierra del Fuego National Park (in Argentina), which, naturally, is abundant with lakes, islands and mountains. Our walk was round one of the lakes, through woods and past some fantastic scenery. Our plan was to reach the beaver colony (they have beavers here too!) however, after a particularly heavy deluge we decided to call it a day. But it did whet our appetite for the next National Park we visited, which was Torres del Paine.
Torres del Paine is a spectacular expanse of land in Chile. It is named after two massive granite towers that hold court in the middle of the park. Surrounding them
are many more snowcapped mountains, glaciers that reach the water and lakes of every shade of blue you can imagine. The most common way to see the park is by doing a five day trek and camping, but we opted for staying in a hostel in town and visiting for a day!
We picked out the most scenic path up to see the Torres a bit closer, which we could manage in a day. But once again we had to put the waterproofs to the test and unfortunately the cloud came down so low we couldn’t see the peaks at all! We thought this an omen so tramped back down and continued through the park to Lake Pehoe. Luckily the sun poked out in time to show us just how turquoise the lake really was; quite beautiful, we could have sat there all day.
Patagonia is also one of the few places in the world where glaciers reach sea level. This creates a view of perfect blue and white ice reaching down into gleaming waters (when the sun is out!) Bits of the glacier regularly break off leaving glacier graveyards across lakes and rivers and even some areas
of ocean, which look superb. We managed to see the Balmaceda and Serrano glaciers where this happens, by a boat trip down the fjords from Punta Natales.
We finally had our first proper mate (mah-tay) experience on this boat. Basically mate is a hot drink like a very strong green tea, but the cup is filled 3/4 full of the leaves, topped up with water from a thermos flask (every self respecting argentinian and chilean carries a mate cup and flask everywhere) and drunk through a metal straw with a kind of filter on the bottom. Drinking it is like smoking a pipe and is usually enjoyed as a social thing - drink your cup full, pass back to the owner, who tops it back up and passes it to the next person. It was really nice to be invited into the circle with a couple of Chileans and a Pole and to sit and chat (in the common language of French Spanglish!) for a good couple of hours over this. Since then we have been invited into a few more, which is always a treat.
Unfortunately after all this beauty it was time to move north (via
a 40 hour bus journey!) and on to the island of Chiloé. This island off the coast of Chile is particularly famous for its entirely wooden houses as the islanders traditionally didn't have access to other materials. In most places the houses are still completely wooden, and around the esturies and coastlines many are on stilts (called Palafitos).
The villages we visited are tiny with minimal hotels, restaurants and shops so the perfect place to relax and watch the world go by. The smallest villages we visited were actually off the main island on an even smaller island called Quinchao. We had great fun getting there by waiting on street corners flagging down random buses. Then catching an open-top ferry in water filled with sea lions and even some jumping dolphins!
The main business on the Chiloé archipelago is fishing so the seafood was of course superb. In fact the seafood has been great in many of the recent towns we have been in. Ranging from the mariscos (shellfish) in the tiny cafes in fish markets, to conger eel which is a local delicacy. But one of the funniest experiences was when Matt ordered raw mussels. They tasted
great, very tender and flavoursome and were served with plenty of lemon… but since leaving there we have seen many national health warnings on eating raw shellfish… oops! (Suffice to say we are both still fine!)
It has been noticeable during our short stay so far in Chile that there is a (usually very random) form of live music each night in the main square of the town. From the two youths in Achao who played a mix of country/samba rock, to the full orchestra in Castro complete with a singing, clapping and dancing conductor (and a bloke in the percussion section playing the automatic rifle!), to the almost indie punksters Piknic who played as loud as you like at the all night 2nd hand book fair on the pier in Puerto Montt... those crazy Chileans!
Aside from the seafood we have been feasting out on many empanadas, the South American pies (much like pasties, but deep fried!) filled with meat. And of course plenty of fillet steak… we discovered how cheap it was to buy in supermarkets so have since been filling our bellies regularly, I think eight in 24 hours was a bit much though…
We are now back in Argentina in Bariloche which is a great town in the middle of the lake district. We have just started a few weeks of learning Spanish, and are living with a fantastic lady called Mara, and if you can believe it we are incredibly busy (not sure how we used to have time to work...) but will write again very soon!
All our love, us xx
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